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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27440029">My Dawn</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan'>navaan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Black Sails</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Complicated Relationships, Established Relationship, F/F, Kissing, Love, POV Female Character, Post-Canon, Romance, Romantic Gestures</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:27:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,279</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27440029</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Anne comes to Nassau one night and spirits Max away.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anne Bonny/Max</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Femslash Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>My Dawn</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thimblerig/gifts">Thimblerig</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The taddela-taddela of the horse’s hooves sounded loud and unforgiving in Max’s ears as the horse carried her away and out of Nassau, her hands clenched in Anne’s coat. It was dark and only torches and lanterns lit the streets here and there where there were still people about going about the kind of business that was better not be observed in the daylight. Nassau had changed but it was still Nassau.</p><p>Max had a feeling that Anne had chosen this path through the city specifically because they wouldn’t be observed by anyone who'd be willing to talk. Her heart jumped anxiously in her chest. What was Anne up to?</p><p>Her Anne was an impulsive creature and a deadly force. It was hard to tell even for Max when Anne’s impulses crawled from passion into violence.</p><p>And this… this was an abduction more than a lover asking another for an outing.</p><p>“Where are we going? Anne? What is this?”</p><p>“Away, we’re going away,” Anne’s voice was a mere whisper over the wind and the clacking of the hooves.</p><p>It was hard to reason with Anne when she didn’t want to be reasoned with - and right now Max had no information about what had set her off.</p><p>Her fearsome pirate lover had arrived after sightings of Jack’s ship and crew had made the rounds among the good merchants of Nassau. Jack was handling business through immediaries these days, so Max hadn’t expected the crew to come ashore openly but Anne must have arrived with one of the longboats the day before.</p><p>But what had set her off to march into Max’s estate and spirit her away in the dark of night, Max didn’t know. Anne had barely said a word.</p><p>Perhaps things had been too easy for a while, she mused. Had she let her guard down? Not heard about the right rumours? Was Anne spiriting her away because the pirates who dealt with them under the cover of merchant flags had sniffed treason in their operation? Was she here to punish Max?</p><p>If so, Max hadn’t done anything to actively upset the balance. Was this a misunderstanding? Something else entirely?</p><p>She held on more tightly when Anne spurred the horse into an even wilder dash. </p><p>By then, the city of Nassau was only a vaguely visible outline that vanished into the night behind them.</p><p>Anne said nothing to her, intently focused on bringing about the deed she’d planned.</p><p>She was like that, Anne… Wild like the sea that had set her free but claimed her soul in turn, unpredictable like the storms that raged across the islands in winter, but an unstoppable force when she had set her mind to a task. Max loved her for it, despite the danger.</p><p>The waves beyond the cliffs raged so loudly to their left that any sound would have been lost, so Max didn’t bother to raise her voice again.</p><p>Often, in her bed, her home, her estate, she was the one surprising Anne by taking control in her own way, and she was often the wiser of the two, anticipating what others - even Anne - wanted and needed and then using it or bringing it to light. It was Max’s way.</p><p>Anne’s way was this.</p><p>Worldlessness, exertion and iron will.</p><p>By the time Anne reined in the horse, Max had lost all sense of time and the feeling in her fingers.</p><p>She looked around when Anne swung down and then held up a hand to help her down.</p><p>Before she accepted the hand, she took a moment to straighten herself. Her hair and her expensive dress were in disarray.</p><p>But Anne was looking up from below the broad, dirty brim of her hat with a look of appreciation that implied she liked it better that way. Her gaze bore all the danger Max expected to see but she knew her life wasn’t in danger.</p><p>It helped Max regain her composure. </p><p>She looked around. </p><p>They had stopped beside a beach, leagues away from the inland parish where Flint had made his home with Madame Barlow for so long.</p><p>“Was this abduction necessary? It is overly dramatic even for us,” she said, sounding like she was entirely unconcerned.</p><p>And she was. </p><p>This was Anne after all.</p><p>Her moods could shift quickly. </p><p>“You’re like the sea, you know, my darling?” Max remarked and took Anne’s hand to let her help her down from the horse.</p><p>Anne said nothing, just watched her in the first light of dawn. “Wasn’t necessary,” Anne admitted gruffly, referring to Anne’s jibe about the abduction. “Was just quicker this way.”</p><p>“I take it speed was of the essence? Was someone tempted to strike…”</p><p>Anne shook her head, her streaky red hair flying this way and that, and then grasped Max’s hand hard, pulled her along.</p><p>Used these days to be treated with a new kind of reference and respect, Max wasn’t about to protest. There was a bond she shared with Anne, that transcended the state of love and kinship. Anne had found her when she’d been broken, betrayed, kept like an animal and helped her find herself again, then Anne had been unmoored and adrift -- their lives had never been easy and their relationship had always been fraught with danger, yet they had always found something in each other that had the power to heal.</p><p>It made sense that Anne would go to these lengths to save her.</p><p>Holding her hand in a death grip, Anne led her not towards the land, but towards the sea. Above the horizon the sun was rising -- but there was no boat, no ship as far as Max could see.</p><p>“Anne?” she asked concerned.</p><p>“Shhh,” she was hushed and Anne dropped into the sand, pulling her along.</p><p>“What is…?”</p><p>This time Anne silenced her with a kiss.</p><p>Surprised, she froze, expected violence and passion to lead to something harsher and harder but then she let it wash over her -- sea water washing over her, seeping into her -- and Anne kissed her with the surprising sweetness of their early day, of their later days -- of their current day? </p><p>“Watch this,” Anne said when she pulled away.</p><p>“This?”</p><p>“This.” Anne gestured to the horizon, the reddish daw that was spreading its fingers across the mirror sea, calm and tranquil for one.</p><p>Beautiful.</p><p>Like the sun in Anne’s dirty red hair.</p><p>“I look at the sea,” Max said and laughed, “and I see you.”</p><p>“I look at the sun,” Anne said, “the stars -- and I see you.”</p><p>Max stared. Aghast and for once out of words. The sun, the stars above the sea.</p><p>The beacons that led the sailor back to shore, to the harbour -- home.</p><p>“You kidnapped me to watch the sunset with me?”</p><p>“Pirate,” Anne said. “Was the quickest way I could see.”</p><p>“Of course,” Max agreed and smiled, warmed, leaned over to kiss Anne’s grimy cheek. “Thank you.”</p><p>She sat there, leaning against Anne’s shoulder and watching the sun rise in the east.</p><p>“Didn’t want to watch it on the beach there,” Anne explained.</p><p>Max understood. They both had history on that beach in front of Nassau.</p><p>“Thank you,” she repeated and trailed a finger down Anne’s cheek. “Now,” she said and reached for the hem of Anne’s long linen shirt. “Let’s give you a bath out there. You need it, my sailor.”</p><p>Anne smiled, reached for the lace of her collar and trailed a kiss along her chin to her jaw.</p><p>This was love.</p><p>Their love. </p><p>The love of sailor for the star, of the celestial bodies for the sea.</p><p>This was theirs.</p><p>And whatever came next, nothing could take this from them.</p>
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